It’s that time, friends! Christmas movie time, that is!
Grumpy Cat says: NO.
Wait. Did you think I was talking about White Christmas (or, my preference, Holiday Inn), It’s a Wonderful Life, or A Miracle on 34th Street? The Grinch and Scrooge? The classics? No. I’m talking about the CHEESY Christmas movies on CABLE.
The ones with our favorite childhood stars (or crushes, WHATEVER) – Mark-Paul Gosselar, James Van Der Beek, Mario Lopez, Joey Lawrence, Luke Perry, Dean Cain. And don’t forget the ever-present Melissa Joan Hart, Haylie Duff, Lacey Chabert and their friends Joanna Garcia, Ashley Williams, Tatyana Ali, Danica McKellar, Tia Mowry, Jennie Garth and Jenny McCarthy.
Wow. It sounds a little crazy when I list them all out like that. I don’t care, though. I love every one of those silly movies!
Well, that’s not true. I do have a threshold for cheese, and some of these movies bust right through it. Still, most of them – with their small town charm and desperate business owners and quirky neighbors and snow globe magic and alternate universes and childhood sweethearts – are my favorite things to watch in December.
Even my favorite pop culture writer from the very prestigious NPR agrees:
“Holiday time can actually be a little fraught and a little stressful. You know, you want something uncomplicated, and sometimes saving the Christmas tree farm from foreclosure is a pretty good option.”
– Linda Holmes, NPR’s Monkey See
I was going to make a list of my top 10 favorite cheesy Christmas movies, but after listing all the actors who star in them, I realized it would be impossible to narrow it down. (After all, I didn’t even bring up the not-so-famous actors or the Henry Winklers, Tom Cavanaughs, Steve Guttenbergs, Tom Arnolds and the Doris Roberts, Markie Posts, Teri Polos, Candace Camerons. See? I can’t even make THAT list a short one!)
So instead I’ll finish this so I can finish watching…um…Holiday in Handcuffs. (I KNOW.) And I’ll leave you with a few links so you, too, can get your fill of Christmas cheese!
- The Hallmark Channel has 12 new Christmas movies this year. (Though my stupid cable plan doesn’t let me watch a single one of them. No, I don’t want to talk about it.)
- ABC Family and its 25 Days of Christmas have some of the best and worst offenders in this category. You can watch a whole bunch of them on the website – free and not all pixelly like they are on YouTube, not that you’d resort to that. Not that I’d resort to that. ANYWAY.
- Lifetime has new movies and old movies and big movies and super cheesy movies – and you can find the actual schedule of when all of them air on the website (they win best Cheesy Christmas Movie Cable Website!).
- Netflix has a ton of Christmas movies of all kinds – including the cheesy kind (but also the Ernest Saves Christmas and something starring that kid from Home Improvement).
- And UP TV is apparently a thing, too. I’d never heard of this channel and don’t have it on my dial (remember dials?), but it looks like those lucky enough to have it have even more Christmas cheesy fun to choose from.
Now, I’m off to do something productive. I’m most certainly not going to follow a rabbit trail of cheesy Christmas movies in hopes of finding this one movie I watched that one time that either had a girl from a show I used to watch or a guy from a show I used to watch and there was a Christmas tree scene and SOMETHING. I think the girl had red hair.
No. I’m not going to try to figure out what movie that is. That’d be ridiculous…right…?
I love them all! My DVR is full of Christmas movies, from the end of October till sometime in February when I finally get through them all. I tried to just not record some of the ones I’d seen before, like Let it Snow, Trading Christmas, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, A Christmas Snow, etc., but I couldn’t resist, and I ended up with a fair number of those as well as the new Christmas Premieres. My family finally bought me A Christmas Card for Mother’s Day last year :).
I love The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! (I probably love the rest you mentioned, but they all have such bland, forgettable names that I never remember which ones they are!)
A Christmas Snow is the one where the Kitchen Grinch is trapped in her house for several days with her boyfriend’s daughter and a stranger.
The Christmas Card is about a soldier who visits the town and church who sent him a Christmas card.
Has anyone ever seen “Special Delivery”? Back when ABCFamily used to be FoxFamily, it was one of their originals. It had Andy Dick and he was an adoption courier in charge of bringing a baby to its new family for Christmas, but he got into all sorts of hijinx. I like that one. Also, I liked FoxFamily’s “Three Days” movie. And also, an old one they used to show on Hallmark Channel called “Borrowed Hearts.” It had Will from Will & Grace and Roma Downey and the little girl from the Pepsi commercials in the 90’s. Love that one!
I’ve actually watched or recorded (or set to record) every single movie listed on that link page :) for Hallmark :). One Starry Christmas was pretty cheesy, but it was all saved when I heard George Canyon sing…he’s also in Thomas Kincaid’s Christmas Miracle, and the guy has a beautiful voice. My husband and I looked him up on YouTube after watching another movie where he sang.
I’ve got all the ones from 25 Days of Christmas from ABC Family, but I see a few I didn’t pick up on Lifetime, so I’ll have to find them on TV :) Thanks!
You have to tell me: did you watch the En Vogue Christmas movie, too? How was it???
I missed that one! I’ll be setting it to record on the 11th :).
Ha! I love that NPR quote. I love cheesy Christmas books where the guy gets the girl with a little Christmas magic. I need to watch more cheesy Christmas movies. I do love them. I did watch the Grumpy Cat one. It was fun during the first viewing. The kids keep asking to watch it again.
I haven’t actually watched the Grumpy Cat one yet! I think Aubrey Plaza and the Grumpy Cat memes are hilarious, although making a meme into a movie seems sketchy. I’ve heard others say it wasn’t bad, though, so I need to set my DVR for it!
I adore you :) And this list. Because I watch ALL OF THEM. The new Hallmark one with Candace Cameron Bure? Adorable. The one on Up about the Christmas tree farm with Lacey Chabert or whatever her name is? I cried. Who am I kidding, I cry at all of these and get sucked in to their cheesy awesomeness every year. The fact that Hallmark starts their movies at 8pm (hello, bedtime routine that lasts an HOUR on a goodnight) and doesn’t let me watch them On Demand makes me crazy. But I still love them.
I haven’t seen the new Candace Cameron Bure one. I need to set my DVR! Oh, wait. No. It’s a Hallmark one. And I don’t GET that channel. Blergh. Um, perhaps you could help me, though? In remembering a movie with a redhaired girl that may or may not have been a child actor where there’s a Christmas farm-in-the-city scene? And they buy a tree together? or something? Or maybe THE GUY was the child actor? HALP?
There is one with Cameron Mathison, who was not a child star, but he was on the soap opera “All My Children” for quite a few years. In that one he has a dream of owning a tree farm and I think the girl has read hair (or maybe it’s brownish). The new one with Candace Cameron-Bure has her with red hair but I don’t know if they go to a tree farm. There’s also one with a red-head actress where her family runs a tree farm and she is stuck running it. I’m not sure if she’s a child actress but that one is called Fir Crazy. Also, Eve’s Christmas has a redheaded child star but not sure if there’s a tree farm…..Ummm….. that’s all I can think of at the moment.
I have been watching Hallmark channel like crazy this year. But we moved last Sunday and cable isn’t getting hooked up until this Saturday, so I missed whatever new movies there was last weekend :( Once it gets hooked back up, I’m sure there will be repeats of those movies so I can catch them. I have a TON on my dvr right now though, hopefully they will still be there when we hook the cable back up :)
Oh my WORD exactly what Crystal said – – so much ditto here! You are my TV MAVEN. My entire line up of current much loved new TV is based entirely on your last TV post. And I was just googling Christmas movies this afternoon and trying to figure out how I could watch the Hallmark ones online :)
Your TV wish is my demand. My On Demand, if you will. No. No, that pun did not work. Scratch that. But I *am* happy to keep you full up on good TV shows, that’s for sure! ;)
Well some people call them cheesy, but I love almost all of the Hallmark Christmas movies. Love them! :) Christmas is my favorite time of the year, and there’s nothing better than gathering around the tellie (no I’m not British, but I love that sound), and watching the magical Christmas movies. From Oct. 31 to Dec. 25 Hallmark has Christmas movies on every week. If you are lucky enough to have a DVR like we do, I look through the guide each week to see what Christmas movies are scheduled. I then record the ones we want to watch, so that when we all have time to sit down and enjoy the movies, they are there waiting for us! My daughter and 2 grandkids (16 and 11) live with my husband and myself, so we can really enjoy the ‘together’ time and enjoy the Christmas season together. We do know the ‘reason for the season’ and celebrate knowing Jesus throughout the Christmas season, but the Christmas movies are an awesome added bonus!
Merry Christmas Mary and
Merry Christmas everyone!
Hmmm, cheesy one? I guess it would have to be A Christmas Story and believe it or not at 49 years old, I watched it for the first time last year!! But I am glad I did (?) because I couldn’t take the shocked look of people anymore when they talked about it in the lunch room and I had a blank stare….
But I must watch the original Grinch cartoon and The Year without a Santa Claus and call my sister to sing “SnowMiser/Heatmiser” with her. =) It is tradition. LOL
And naturally the classics must be watched too.
Thanks for the list!!
Merry Christmas Mary!!
I haven’t seen A Christmas Story either, Lina – so I know those shocked looks! :)
I’m right there with you, my friend! It’s hard to pick a favorite but Snow Bride and Royal Christmas come to mind. It’s funny- I usually think about them more in terms of the actor or the plot than the actual title!
I haven’t seen Royal Christmas; I’ll need to look that one up! And yes, their titles are so generic I can’t remember which is which so actors and plots it is!
We love Christmas in handcuffs!!! Soooo cheesy but also good. Even my.husband appreciates that one.
Haha, glad to know I’m not the ONLY one! :)
I love all the Hallmark and Lifetime ones…..one of my very faves of all time is “Ebbie” – Lifetime’s take on “A Christmas Carol” with Susan Lucci playing the evil lead. Love it! Thanks for reminding me to find it!
Oooh, sounds like a good one. I’ll have to look it up!